The 4HTA Festivals

The Four Heatons Traders Association and its members have for the past eight years put on the annual Summer and Christmas Festivals, and have nurtured and grown them over that time until they blossomed into the much-loved fixture in the Heatons calendar they are.But we at the 4HTA have become a victim of our own success; for those 4HTA members who volunteer to run it, that burden has become excessive, and diverts significant time and energies away from other equally valuable parts of our core mission at the 4HTA.In short, we needed to look at how best we can take the festivals forward to continue, and increase upon, their success, but to spread the workload involved a little further.

The Steering Group and Membership of the 4HTA have been consulting interested bodies and other Traders’ Associations and Events Managers on how best to go forward with the Heatons Festivals.I would like to thank all those who contributed to the debate for their time and their wisdom.

The 4HTA have decided that we will have a ‘fallow year’, to use Glastonbury’s phrase, in 2017 and there will be no Summer or Christmas Festivals this year.This not just to give the park a little extra time to recover, but to also give us time to set up a new stand-alone community interest (or similar) company which will, we believe, be the best vehicle to take the festivals forward to bigger and better things in 2018.

We hope that this new Heatons Festival company we are creating will be able to draw its Steering Group and volunteers not just from the members of the 4HTA as in previous years, but also from the great pool of talent that is our local Four Heatons community.In the coming months we will be actively seeking those willing to give their time and energy to make the relaunched festivals even better in 2018, and to help raise even more money for good causes in the Heatons.

In the meantime the 4HTA members will be throwing their weight behind other local events so we won’t be resting on our laurels.

May we thank you for all the support you have given the festivals that the 4HTA started eight years ago, and for supporting them year after year.If you would like to be part of the team that will re-launch them bigger and better in 2018 please get in touch and register your interest with us at events@fourheatons.co.uk